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Gal Gadot

Gal Gadot Varsano (Hebrew: גל גדות‎, ; born 30 April 1985) is an Israeli actress and model. At age 18, she was crowned Miss Israel 2004. She then served two years in the Israel Defense Forces as a combat instructor, and began studying law and international relations at IDC Herzliya college while building up her modeling and acting careers. Gadot's first international film role came as Gisele Yashar in Fast & Furious, a role she reprised in subsequent installments of the film franchise. She went on to earn worldwide fame for portraying Wonder Woman in the DC Extended Universe, beginning with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), followed by the solo film Wonder Woman and the ensemble Justice League (both 2017). In 2018, Gadot was included on Time's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Early life

Gal Gadot was born in Petah Tikva, Israel,[1] and raised in its neighbouring city of Rosh HaAyin.[12] In Hebrew, her first name means "wave" and her surname means "riverbanks".[13] Her parents are Irit (née Weiss), a teacher, and Michael Gadot, an engineer.[14] Both her parents were born in Israel, and they Hebraized their surname from "Greenstein" to "Gadot" prior to her birth.[15][16] Her father is a sixth-generation Israeli.[17] Her maternal grandparents were born in Europe; her grandfather, who was imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp, survived the Holocaust, and her grandmother left before the Nazi invasion.[17][18][19] Gadot has stated that she was brought up in a "very Jewish, Israeli family environment".[14] Her ancestry is Polish-Jewish, Austrian-Jewish, German-Jewish, and Czech-Jewish.[2] She has one younger sister.[20]

Her high school major was biology. She says that in high school she was good at basketball because of her height.[2] As a teenager, her first jobs were babysitting and at Burger King.[21] As an adult, Gadot studied law and international relations at the IDC Herzliya college.[2][8]

Gadot completed her two mandatory years of service in the Israel Defense Forces, enlisted as a combat instructor.[22] She said of her time in the Israeli military: "You give two or three years, and it's not about you. You learn discipline and respect."[23] Gadot says that her background helped her to win the role of Gisele in Fast & Furious: "I think the main reason was that the director Justin Lin really liked that I was in the military, and he wanted to use my knowledge of weapons."[24]

Career

Modeling and pageant career

At age 18, Gadot won the 2004 Miss Israel beauty pageant[25] and next competed in the Miss Universe 2004 pageant in Ecuador. She carried out her mandatory two-year military service from the age of 20, then studied law.[26]

In 2007, 21-year-old Gadot was in the Maxim photo shoot, "Women of the IDF", and was then featured on the cover of the New York Post. In April 2012, Shalom Life ranked her Number 5 on its list of "the 50 most talented, intelligent, funny, and gorgeous Jewish women in the world", behind model Bar Refaeli and actress Eva Green.[30] In 2014, Gadot was one of two Israeli actresses, along with Odeya Rush, listed as an upcoming leading lady by InStyle magazine.[31]

Acting

Gadot in 2016.

After Gadot had completed her first year of college, a casting director contacted her agent to have Gadot audition for the part of Bond girlCamille Montes in the spy film Quantum of Solace.[26] Although the part eluded her, a few months later, Gadot starred in the 2008 Israeli drama Bubot. Three months later, the casting director from her Quantum of Solace audition cast Gadot for the role of Gisele Yashar in the action film Fast & Furious, the fourth film in The Fast and the Furious franchise, having earned the role over six other actresses.[32][33] Gadot performed her own stuntwork in those films.[34]

Other work

Gadot, fellow Wonder Woman actress Lynda Carter, DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and U.N. Under-Secretary General Cristina Gallach appeared at the United Nations on 21 October 2016, the 75th anniversary of the first appearance of Wonder Woman, to mark the character's designation by the United Nations as its "Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls".[49][50] The gesture was intended to raise awareness of UN Sustainable Development Goal No. 5, which seeks to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030.[49][50][51] The decision was met with protests from UN staff members who stated in their petition to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the character is "not culturally encompassing or sensitive" and served to objectify women. As a result, the character was stripped of the designation, and the project ended 16 December.[51]